Method and system for secure facsimile delivery and registration

ABSTRACT

A secure fax transmission system can be used to assure the intended recipient of a confidential document being sent via facsimile is the only person that will have access to the document once it is sent. An application module communicates with a client user interface over a first network and communicates with a recipient fax machine over a second network. The application module receives information associated with a confidential document being sent via facsimile. Prior to sending the document, the application module determines if the recipient fax number has been previously registered as a secure fax number. The application module then sends the document to the recipient if the recipient fax number is registered a secure. If the recipient fax number is not registered as secure, the application module sends a request for registration to the recipient fax number.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The invention relates generally to the field of facsimiletransmissions and more particularly to secure methods of deliveringdocuments via facsimile.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Facsimile (referred to herein as “fax”) technology has become acommon and inexpensive means for transmitting documents using publiclyavailable telephone lines. The ability to deliver important documentsdirectly to a recipient is an essential capability of many businesses.However, documents often contain sensitive or private information, andit remains difficult for the sender of a confidential document to beassured that only the indented recipient has access to the document onceit is delivered via fax.

[0003] In the past, systems and methods have been introduced in anattempt to address this concern. One such method comprises theinstallation of a software application on both the sending and receivingfax machines, the utilization of personal computers to access secure faxservers, or both. One drawback to this method is that recipients whohave never previously received a fax from a specific sender, or whonormally do not receive secure fax messages, are required to purchaseand install hardware and software prior to receiving a secure fax.Another method includes the use of so-called “facsimilestore-and-forward facilities,” or “F-SAFF's.” The users of such systemsare required to maintain some form of “inbox,” often located on acomputer, from which they can retrieve incoming faxes. To receive anincoming fax, a user logs in using, for example, an ID and password, orenters a personal identification number. Again, this method requires therecipient to perform some function before the sender initializes thetransmission. Furthermore, a recipient must re-enter the ID, password,or PIN each time they need to retrieve a confidential document.

[0004] As a specific example, a medical professional often must verify apatient's medical history with an insurance company or anotherphysician. Such information is considered personal and confidential, andprofessionals that transmit this information can be held responsible forits security. However, physicians' offices often send and receive faxmessages that do not require secure transmission, and the frequency ofreceiving information from any one particular sender can be low.Therefore, it is often difficult to justify the hardware, software,training, and maintenance costs associated with maintaining a secure faxserver.

[0005] Given the need to send and receive confidential documents via faxwithout requiring recipients to purchase additional computers orsoftware, or subscribe to any additional services, there exists a needfor the senders of secure faxes to receive and store recipient faxinformation as a secure destination.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] The present invention allows an operator of a sending fax machineto request assurances from the prospective recipient of a confidentialdocument that the receiving fax machine is secure. Furthermore, theoperator can then store the recipient's fax number as a securedestination for future transmissions. In addition, a sender of aconfidential document can send a request to an intended recipient of theconfidential document requesting the registration the recipient faxnumber as secure. Additionally, the invention includes the hardware andsoftware means necessary to implement the claimed methods.

[0007] In one aspect of the invention, the sender of a confidentialdocument determines if an intended recipient of a confidential fax haspreviously registered the receiving facsimile number with the sender asa secure destination. The method can also include delaying transmissionof the document until the recipient has registered the receivingfacsimile number.

[0008] In another aspect of the invention, the sender of a confidentialdocument, upon learning that the recipient fax number is not secure,sends a request to the intended recipient of the confidential document.The request can include a unique identification number or otherelectronically readable printed symbol, for example, that can be used toregister the recipient fax machine with the sender. In one version ofthe invention, the sender can register the recipient fax machine number,while in another version of the invention the system can automaticallyregister the recipient fax machine if the registration request includesa machine readable code. In another version of the system, the systemcan use both methods of registration.

[0009] The method described above can further include the sender storingthe recipient's fax number on a local computer for future reference andretrieval. This approach can enable the sender to send subsequentconfidential documents without the recipient having to re-register thefax number or login to any application to retrieve incoming faxes. Inanother example, the method can include sending a registration requestfor each individual document sent to a recipient fax number. In anothervariation of the invention, the method allows the sender to stipulate avalidity period for each recipient fax number, after the expiration ofwhich the recipient must reregister the recipient fax number.

[0010] In yet another aspect, the invention includes a secure facsimiletransmission system. The secure fax transmission system includes asender user interface, a database module, a communications module, andan application module. The sender user interface communicates with asender, the database module and the application module over a firstcommunications network and the communications module communicates with arecipient fax machine over a second communications network. Theapplication module receives information associated with a confidentialdocument to be sent via facsimile from the sender user interface. Theapplication module can also include a storage module to allow it tostore documents that have not been released for transmission.Additionally, the secure fax transmission system includes acommunications module to allow the transmission of documents to arecipient fax machine via public telephone lines. The database moduleincludes a storage facility for storing recipient fax numbers that havebeen previously registered as secure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] The above and further advantages of this invention may be betterunderstood by referring to the following description in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings. The drawings are not necessarily to scale,emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of theinvention.

[0012]FIG. 1 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of the prior artincluding a first fax machine transmitting a document to a second faxmachine over a communications network.

[0013]FIG. 2 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a secure faxtransmission system according to the present invention.

[0014]FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of a secure fax transmissionsystem according to the present invention.

[0015]FIG. 4 illustrates a more detailed embodiment of a secure faxtransmission system according to the present invention.

[0016]FIG. 5 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of the steps performedby the sender of a confidential document to transmit a document via faxaccording to the present invention.

[0017]FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the steps performed by thesender of a confidential document to register a recipient fax number assecure according to the present invention.

[0018]FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a request to register arecipient fax number as secure according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019]FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a document transmissionsystem 100 using fax machines 102, 108 according to the prior art. Thesystem 100 includes a sending fax machine 102, a document to bedelivered via fax 104, a communications network 106, a recipient faxmachine 108, and a facsimile copy of the document 110. The user of sucha system places the document 104 in the sending fax machine 102 andidentifies the recipient fax machine 108 to the sending fax machine 102by entering the recipient fax machine number into the sending faxmachine 102. The sending fax machine 102 then transmits an electronicrepresentation of the document 104 via the communications network 106.The recipient fax machine 108 sends a response to the sending faxmachine 102 signaling that it is ready to receive the electronicrepresentation of the document 104. As the receiving fax machine 108receives the electronic representation of the document from the sendingmachine 102, the receiving fax machine 108 prints a facsimile copy ofthe document 110.

[0020]FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a secure fax transmissionsystem 200 that includes a client computer 102, a first communicationsnetwork 204, a second communications network 106, and a recipient faxmachine 108. The client 202 includes a sender user interface, and it cancommunicate with an application server which can reside on the samecomputer. The application is in communication with the communicationsmodule, which is communicates with a second communications network 106,such as the public telephone lines. The second communications network106 is in communications with a recipient fax machine 108. It should benoted that FIG. 2 is an exemplary embodiment intended only to illustrateand not limit the invention.

[0021] The first communications network 204 and the secondcommunications network 106 can be a local-area network (LAN) such as anIntranet, a medium-area network (MAN), public telephone lines, or a widearea network (WAN) such as the Internet or the World Wide Web (i.e.,web). Exemplary embodiments of the communication paths 204, 106 caninclude standard telephone lines, LAN or WAN links (e.g., T1, T3, 56 kb,X.25), broadband connections (ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM), and wirelessconnections. The connections over the communication paths 204, 106 canbe established using a variety of communication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP,IPX, SPX, NetBIOS, Ethernet, RS232, and direct asynchronousconnections).

[0022] The client computer 202 can be any personal computer (e.g., 286,386, 486, Pentium, Macintosh computer), Windows-based terminal, networkcomputer, wireless device, information appliance, RISC Power PC,X-device, workstation, mini computer, main frame computer, personaldigital assistant, or other computing device that has a windows-baseddesktop, can connect to a network, and has sufficient persistent storagefor executing a small, display presentation program. Windows-orientedplatforms supported by the client computer 202 can include, withoutlimitation, WINDOWS 3.x, WINDOWS 95, WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS NT 3.51,WINDOWS NT 4.0, WINDOWS 2000, WINDOWS CE, WINDOWS ME, MAC/OS, Java, andUNIX. The client computer 202 can include a visual display device (e.g.,a computer monitor), a data entry device (e.g., a keyboard), persistentor volatile storage (e.g., computer memory) for storing downloadedapplication programs, a processor, and a mouse.

[0023] The client computer 202 includes a sender user interface 208. Theinterface 208 can be text driven (e.g., DOS) or graphically driven(e.g., Windows). In one embodiment, the sender user interface 208 canuse web browser, such as Internet Explorer™ developed by MicrosoftCorporation (Redmond, WA), to connect to the local network 204. In afurther embodiment, the web browser uses the existing Secure SocketLayer (SSL) support, developed by Netscape Corporation, (Mountain View,CA) to establish the connection to the local network 204 as a securenetwork.

[0024]FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of the invention. The senderuser interface 208 can reside on one or more client machines 202, 202′and the application module can reside on a server computer 304. Theclient machine 202 communicates with the server machine 304 over acommunications network 302. In another embodiment, the applicationmodule can reside on a separate server from the sender client 202. Theclient machines 202, 202′ and the application server machine 304 can beany personal computer described above. Likewise, the communicationnetwork 302 can be any communications network described above. In oneembodiment, the application server 304 hosts one or more applicationsthat the client 202 can access. In another embodiment, the applicationserver 304 can be a member of a server farm, which is a logical group ofone or more servers that are administered as a single entity. In theembodiment shown, the server farm includes the server 304, a secondserver 306, and a third server 308.

[0025]FIG. 4 is a more detailed illustration of one embodiment of theinvention. The client machine 202 hosts a communication module 402 whichfacilitates communication with other computers, fax machines, and thelike. In addition, the client machine 202 hosts software 404 comprisinga client interface module 406, an application module 408, and a databasemodule 410. The client interface module 406 receives instructions fromthe sender user interface 208 (not shown) and sends the instructions tothe application module 408. The application module 408 then parses theinstructions to isolate the recipient fax number. The applicationsmodule 408 then communicates with the database module 410 to determineif the recipient fax number has been previously stored in the databasemodule 410 and identified as secure. If the application module 408determines that the recipient fax number is secure, it releases thedocument and the document is sent to the recipient fax machine 108 usingthe communications module 402, the first communications network 204, andthe second communications network 106.

[0026] Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the process of the secure faxtransmission system can typically be broken down into twosub-processes. 1) fax transmission and 2) recipient registration.

[0027]FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of the fax transmissionsub-process. For example, the sender of a confidential document 104identifies the intended recipient of the fax, step 502. The sender thenenters, retrieves, or somehow otherwise associates a fax number to therecipient, step 505. The sender then releases the document to theapplication module by selecting the appropriate function on the senderuser interface, step 506. The application module then queries databasemodule to determine if the fax number associated with the recipient haspreviously been registered as secure, step 508. The application modulethen determines, based on the response from the database module, if thefax number is secure, decision step 510. If the application moduledetermines that the recipient fax number has previously been registeredas secure, the application module releases the document to thecommunications module and the document is faxed to the recipient, step510. Conversely, if the application module determines that the recipientfax number has not been previously registered as a secure fax, or thatthe registration has expired, the application module instructs thecommunication module to send a registration request to the recipient faxnumber, step 512.

[0028] In an alternative example, the user can instruct the applicationmodule to delay the f each individual document until a unique, documentspecific registration request has been received from the intendedrecipient of the secure document.

[0029]FIG. 6 illustrates the recipient registration sub-process.Following the step of sending a request for registration, 510, thesender awaits the receipt of the acknowledged registration from theintended recipient. In one embodiment, the sender determines if theregistration request has been received, decision step 604. If theregistration request has not been received, the sender instructs theapplication module to hold the document by selecting the appropriateoption on the sender client interface, step 606. If the completedregistration request has been received, the sender instructs theapplication module to store the recipient fax number in the databasemodule as a secure fix number by selecting the appropriate option on thesender client interface, step 608. The application module then releasesthe document to the communications module, which sends the document tothe secure fax number, step 610.

[0030] An additional feature allows the sender to identify a validityperiod for the registration. In one approach, the sender identifies thevalidity period by entering a period of time, expiration date, or thelike into the sender user interface when the document is released to theapplication module. In another approach, when the sender receives thecompleted registration request, the sender instructs the applicationmodule to store the recipient fax number in the database module as asecure fax number and associates the validity period or expiration datewith the recipient fax number. The application module then releases thedocument to the communications module, which sends the document to thesecure fax number. In addition, when the application module receives arequest to release future documents to previously registered recipientfax numbers, the application module queries the database module to checkthat the registration exists, and has not expired.

[0031] In one alternative approach, the request for registration caninclude a unique bar code or other electronically readable symbol. Whenthe recipient of the registration request sends the request back to thesender, the communications module recognizes the incoming message as afax, and sends it to the application module. The application module canthen scan the incoming fax and recognize the document as a registrationrequest for a particular recipient by reading the electronicallyreadable symbol. The application module can then automatically sendinstructions to the database module to store the recipient fax number asa secure fax number. In addition, the application module can instructthe communications module to send the document to the intendedrecipient. In another feature, the application module sends theregistration request to the database module to be stored as a record ofacceptance of registration.

[0032] Further, although some steps illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6 aredescribed as a linear flow of operations, the steps can be performed atvarious times before, during, or after the performed tasks. The stepsillustrated can also be performed simultaneously. Consequently, FIGS. 5and 6 are intended only to illustrate, and not limit, the invention.

[0033]FIG. 7 illustrates another feature of the invention is the use ofa request registration message that can be sent to the intendedrecipient of a confidential document. The request for registrationdocument may include, but is not limited to, data elements such as: asender name; a sender company; a sender phone number; a sender faxnumber; a recipient name; a recipient company; a recipient phone number;a recipient fax number; an expiration date of the registration; a uniquealpha-numeric identification number; a bar code; a printed symbolicrepresentation of data, and the like. Additionally, instructions may beincluded in the request for registration to assist the recipient inregistering their fax number as secure.

[0034] By employing the methods and system described above, the securefax transmission system increases the confidence of a sender ofconfidential documents that the documents will only be seen by theintended recipient without requiring the recipient to modify theirsystems, or continually enter codes to receive subsequent fax documents.

[0035] While the invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to specific preferred embodiments, it should beunderstood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form anddetail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of delivering a document via facsimile,comprising: (a) identifying a recipient and a corresponding recipientfacsimile number for a document to be sent via facsimile; (b)determining if the recipient facsimile number has been registered as asecure facsimile number; and (c) delivering the document via facsimilewhen the recipient facsimile number is registered as a secure facsimile.2. The method of claim 1 further comprising assigning a uniqueidentifier to the document being sent via facsimile.
 3. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the unique identifier is at least one of a bar code, analpha-numeric code, and a unique printed image.
 4. The method of claim 1further comprising, subsequent to the delivery step (c), deliveringpreviously unsent documents to the recipient facsimile number.
 5. Amethod of registering a facsimile number as a secure facsimile number;comprising: (a) sending a request to register a recipient facsimilenumber as a secure facsimile number; (b) receiving a confirmation thatthe facsimile is a secure facsimile number; and (c) storing therecipient facsimile number as a Secure facsimile number.
 6. The methodof claim 5 further comprising sending a request to register a recipientfacsimile number for each document being sent to one recipient of afacsimile.
 7. The method of claim 5 further comprising sending a requestto register a recipient facsimile number when the recipient facsimilenumber has not previously been registered.
 8. The method of claim 5further comprising assigning a unique identifier to the recipientfacsimile number.
 9. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of receivinga confirmation further comprises processing the confirmation.
 10. Themethod of claim 9 wherein the processing step comprises the confirmationbeing reviewed by a human operator.
 11. The method of claim 9 whereinthe processing step comprises the confirmation being automaticallyreviewed by electronic means.
 12. The method of claim 11 where theelectronic means comprises optical character recognition.
 13. The methodof claim 5 wherein the step of storing the recipient facsimile numberfurther comprises storing an expiration date of the registration. 14.The method of claim 5 wherein the step of storing the recipientfacsimile number further comprises storing a validity period for theregistration.
 15. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of storing therecipient facsimile number further includes identifying the receivedregistration as a record of accepting the registration.
 16. A system fordelivering documents to a recipient via facsimile in a secure method,comprising: a database for storing facsimile numbers; a communicationsmodule for sending a document to a facsimile number; and an applicationfor determining if a recipient facsimile number stored in the databaseis identified as a secure facsimile number.
 17. The system of claim 16further comprising an character recognition module for automaticallyreading printed symbols.
 18. The system of claim 16 wherein the printedsymbols comprise at least one of a bar code, an alpha-numeric code, anda unique printed image.